1999

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.1308 Friday, 23 July 1999.
[1] From: Sean Lawrence <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 22 Jul 1999 10:13:44 +0000
Subj: Re: SHK 10.1292 Re: Horatio
[2] From: Sean Lawrence <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 22 Jul 1999 10:44:36 +0000
Subj: Re: SHK 10.1288 Re: Horatio
[3] From: Clifford Stetner <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Friday, 23 Jul 1999 02:41:14 -0400
Subj: Re: SHK 10.1292 Re: Horatio
[4] From: Meg Powers Livingston <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Friday, 23 Jul 1999 00:11:24 -0700
Subj: Re: Horatio
[5] From: Ed Friedlander <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Friday, 23 Jul 1999 02:43:29 CST
Subj: Re: SHK 10.1292 Re: Horatio
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Sean Lawrence <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 22 Jul 1999 10:13:44 +0000
Subject: 10.1292 Re: Horatio
Comment: Re: SHK 10.1292 Re: Horatio
> I confess I am not yet convinced enough about Horatio as a name coming
> from "ratio". It is true that Horatio is thought by Hamlet as a scholar
> of philosophy and a kind of Stoic, but his role in the play seems
> rather that of a friend, who, rather than showing a more clear reasoning
> than Hamlet's , listens to and sympathizes with him.
Could the idea of "ratio" here not refer to "reason" in the
abstract-"clear reasoning," as you say-but to the incipient "age of
reason"? Is Horatio's way of thinking characteristic of the
enlightenment? After all, he seems to avoid the dark, half-medieval,
half-existential anxieties of Hamlet, refusing to consider the fate of
Alexander's body, for instance, and cynical (initially) about the
existence of the ghost.
By the way, I like your idea of Horatio as the orator, who tells
Hamlet's story. His telling the story seems to support those (like
Cicero, I believe) who held oration to be the basis of states, since his
tale implicitly aids Fortinbras in taking over and assuring domestic
tranquility.
Cheers,
Se